Ice to Meet You

Imbibe takes the discussion of good drinks to sublime (or ridiculous, or ridiculously sublime) new heights with a lengthy feature on ice cubes, praising sword-cut or otherwise “bespoke” ice cubes that are larger, denser, and purer than the usual little machine-created cubes that cool our tipples. The theory is relatively sound: A bigger cube melts more slowly, cools more quickly, and interferes less prominently than more fragile bits of ice. And using filtered water cuts down on unwanted flavors.

Sometimes, of course, shaved or crushed ice is needed to provide a diluting effectthe Mint Julep is a famous example of a drink that leans on its ice to make it palatable to those who don’t regularly guzzle straight bourbon.

Whether the article is brilliant or BS may be a reasonable cause for debate.